a special night
I'm still trying to figure out exactly what happened at my benefit concert for The Missouri Chapter of the Lupus Foundation last night. Whatever it was, it was pretty special.
Thanks to all of you who made it out to St. Francis Xavier Church last night. I had a wonderful time and I hope you did as well.
If you didn't or couldn't make it, fret not! I think you'll enjoy reading about it!
Here's a rundown:
For starters, I was up very late finishing the program and I got an hour of sleep at the most in the morning. Not good.
My good friend, Todd Schaefer, drove me around the whole day, simply b/c that's the kind of guy he is. I performed in the Thursday Afternoon Recital at Webster U. first, and that went well. Then, we went to Xavier so that I could take as much time as possible to become acclimated to both the piano and the setting. We ended up spending a long time in the church that afternoon with me at the piano.
The most difficult part of any concert for me is the period of time in which you wait for things to start happening, like "When is the audience coming? When is so-and-so going to get here with such and such?" This started to happen at around 6:15.
At around that time, I turn around, and standing there, from Nebraska, without telling anyone they were coming, were my cousin, Jane, and my uncle, Rick!!!
There couldn't have been a better thing to have happen at that moment. Thanks again, you two.
I performed at Xavier last year and it was quite an evening as well. However, there were times before the show when I'd be standing around by myself, and I found that to be quite uncomfortable. This time, I had Todd helping me out, Chelsea, a student from Webster, and her friend, Asher, making, by all accounts, a GREAT sound recording, Allison, from the Foundation, my dad...just a lot more support, and I really value and appreciate it.
Showtime was 7:40. Things went very well for the opening, even though I noticed that I was, apparently, bleeding! SOMEhow, I grazed part of my cuticle on my right hand ring finger, and tiny spots of blood were getting on the keys!
I felt really good for the entire performance, in spite of having not slept. However, towards the end, reality started to catch up with me...
You see, I saved my craziest, most vigorous piece for the very end. As I got about halfway through it, I noticed that my left arm was becoming unresponsive.
That's never happened before.
No one seemed to notice, but after a couple of particularly fast and difficult passages, my left arm had sort of locked up and was not really moving out of a locked position.
However, as I moved it around a little bit with my RIGHT hand, it came back to normal. If memory serves me correctly, it happened once more. Somehow, I didn't allow it to disrupt my performance, though.
While this did scare me, I believe it to be the result of simple exhaustion. Fortunately, this is the first time since April 15th of last year that I put myself through that vigorous of a piano performance over that length of time. This time, I'd had virtually no sleep, and I was not backing down at all in terms of what I was demanding out of myself.
However, this does prompt me to consider a very focused weight regimen for my arms, maybe specialized for the kind of playing I do.
Anyway, to my suprise, the audience virtually lept to their feet at the end of the concert. I thanked a lot of people, and I was so happy for every single person who came to see the show. I would've thanked them all personally. I had a lot of pictures taken, and even signed quite a few programs.
It was such a priviledge to have the opportunity to serve The Missouri Chapter of the Lupus Foundation. So much so, I can't exactly explain the experience I had last night.
Guess you had to be there! Thanks for reading!
You can read the Missouri Chapter's account by scrolling down a little at: http://www.lupusmo.org.
-KENNY-
Thanks to all of you who made it out to St. Francis Xavier Church last night. I had a wonderful time and I hope you did as well.
If you didn't or couldn't make it, fret not! I think you'll enjoy reading about it!
Here's a rundown:
For starters, I was up very late finishing the program and I got an hour of sleep at the most in the morning. Not good.
My good friend, Todd Schaefer, drove me around the whole day, simply b/c that's the kind of guy he is. I performed in the Thursday Afternoon Recital at Webster U. first, and that went well. Then, we went to Xavier so that I could take as much time as possible to become acclimated to both the piano and the setting. We ended up spending a long time in the church that afternoon with me at the piano.
The most difficult part of any concert for me is the period of time in which you wait for things to start happening, like "When is the audience coming? When is so-and-so going to get here with such and such?" This started to happen at around 6:15.
At around that time, I turn around, and standing there, from Nebraska, without telling anyone they were coming, were my cousin, Jane, and my uncle, Rick!!!
There couldn't have been a better thing to have happen at that moment. Thanks again, you two.
I performed at Xavier last year and it was quite an evening as well. However, there were times before the show when I'd be standing around by myself, and I found that to be quite uncomfortable. This time, I had Todd helping me out, Chelsea, a student from Webster, and her friend, Asher, making, by all accounts, a GREAT sound recording, Allison, from the Foundation, my dad...just a lot more support, and I really value and appreciate it.
Showtime was 7:40. Things went very well for the opening, even though I noticed that I was, apparently, bleeding! SOMEhow, I grazed part of my cuticle on my right hand ring finger, and tiny spots of blood were getting on the keys!
I felt really good for the entire performance, in spite of having not slept. However, towards the end, reality started to catch up with me...
You see, I saved my craziest, most vigorous piece for the very end. As I got about halfway through it, I noticed that my left arm was becoming unresponsive.
That's never happened before.
No one seemed to notice, but after a couple of particularly fast and difficult passages, my left arm had sort of locked up and was not really moving out of a locked position.
However, as I moved it around a little bit with my RIGHT hand, it came back to normal. If memory serves me correctly, it happened once more. Somehow, I didn't allow it to disrupt my performance, though.
While this did scare me, I believe it to be the result of simple exhaustion. Fortunately, this is the first time since April 15th of last year that I put myself through that vigorous of a piano performance over that length of time. This time, I'd had virtually no sleep, and I was not backing down at all in terms of what I was demanding out of myself.
However, this does prompt me to consider a very focused weight regimen for my arms, maybe specialized for the kind of playing I do.
Anyway, to my suprise, the audience virtually lept to their feet at the end of the concert. I thanked a lot of people, and I was so happy for every single person who came to see the show. I would've thanked them all personally. I had a lot of pictures taken, and even signed quite a few programs.
It was such a priviledge to have the opportunity to serve The Missouri Chapter of the Lupus Foundation. So much so, I can't exactly explain the experience I had last night.
Guess you had to be there! Thanks for reading!
You can read the Missouri Chapter's account by scrolling down a little at: http://www.lupusmo.org.
-KENNY-
posted by KENNY at 4:36 PM
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